


All That Matters

by Ann7121



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 19:09:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13553736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ann7121/pseuds/Ann7121
Summary: How far should the Rebels go to win?





	All That Matters

"What the hell are you doing, Avon?"

" Quiet. Keep your righteous indignation levels down to a whisper if you can. I'm not keen on attracting their attention."

"I'll ask you again, Avon. What are you doing?”

"What it looks like, Blake. I'm placing pressure bombs under these bodies. When they come to retrieve them the bombs will activate. It should reduce their numbers and give us a better chance."

"That's monstrous, Avon. You can't do that. I can't let you do that."

"Why ever not? What's the matter Blake, too successful a strategy? You would prefer me to stand up perhaps and shout, "I'm here! Shoot me." Give them a sporting chance to wipe us out?"

"No of course I wouldn't. Don't be absurd. But this...what you're doing...it's horrible. Perverted. It relies on turning an impulse of human decency into a fatal trap. That's not what we're about."

" Really? You'll have to enlighten me then. Explain to me how this is any different to destroying Control? "

"That's a legitimate target, Avon. We take it out and topple the Federation. Take power away from the corrupt and return it to..."

" I know...the honest man. Who won't thank you or know what to do with it. And will probably die in the first six months as the weather on his planet goes haywire. But putting that aside, may I enquire how you rate our chances of destroying Control if we don't survive this mission? There are two of us; at least thirty of them with a mission to kill us and claim the Federation reward. Liberator is off station for at least six hours. With those odds, sneaky dishonesty is the only strategy open to us. Unless, of course, you have a more effective idea?”

"Sneaky dishonesty! That's what you call ripping people apart? What else have you got planned?"

"Trip wires..mines...I haven't enough equipment to do a proper job but I rigged a couple of wires while you were unconscious. Seeded the area with the rest of the land mines."

"Most of those you kill with those bombs will be just boys, Avon. You saw them didn't you? Hardly a beard between them. Doesn't that bother you?"

"Oh yes I saw them. You really do have a talent for raking up the unimportant and placing it at the forefront, don't you? If I hadn't taken out the 'boy' that shot you, along with several of his friends, you'd be dead. The guns they carried weren't toys, Blake." 

"There must be alternatives to blowing them up."

"I couldn't see one at the time."

"We could find a safe place to hide, hole up until the Liberator gets here." 

"We could. There's a cave over there. I checked it out earlier. Your welcome to hide out there but I feel I should warn you that your 'boys' got to it first."

"It's mined?"

"To the roof."

"What do you suggest we do?"

" I'd have thought that was obvious. We haul up in the rocks and wait. They'll come at dawn. They'll set off the mines and in the confusion we can pick off enough of them to force a retreat. They'll regroup of course but by then Liberator should be back and we'll be long gone."  
\---  
Safe again on the Liberator, a thought strikes Blake.

"Why did you booby trap the corpses, Avon? The wires and mines did the trick. Why the bodies?"

"I wanted to leave them something to remember us by. I warned them before we landed that I'd take it very personally if they attempted to betray us. "

" Revenge? That's what matters to you? I don't believe you Avon. You're better than that. "

" It's all that matters Blake. I keep my word. And now I need a shower and a long sleep. Goodnight."

Blake knows his rest will be haunted by the screams of those they've killed today and wonders, not for the first time, whether his crusade has crossed some kind of line.


End file.
